Powell River Regional District’s planning committee will be forwarding the regional board an application for a licence of occupation for the investigation of water bottling, but one director is not pleased with the prospect.
At a recent planning committee meeting, committee members reviewed a report from planner Jason Gow that suggested the committee recommend that the regional board advise FrontCounter BC that the Powell River Regional District has no objection to the applications submitted by Klahoose Shellfish Inc. for two short-term (two-year) Investigative Licences of Occupation over 1.2-hectare areas adjacent to Alpine and Bluey creeks in Toba Inlet. The creeks are located in northern Electoral Area A and the licences are for the purpose of collecting specific information the province has requested before it will consider future applications for licences to draw water for commercial water bottling purposes over each creek.
Patrick Brabazon, Electoral Area A director and board chair, in whose region the creeks are located, said philosophically, he does not like bottling water, but this is a referral from the provincial government. “They will do what they do,” Brabazon said, who indicated he was not going to say any more about the prospect.
Gow said Alpine and Bluey creeks already have existing water licences and Crown land tenures associated with them. The applications from Klahoose Shellfish Inc. are for investigative purposes only. In the future, if Klahoose Shellfish Inc. wishes to pursue a water licence and Crown land tenure over each creek, they will be required to submit in writing, support for their applications from the existing licence holders. This would include four existing holders at Alpine Creek and one at Bluey Creek, according to Gow. All but one of these holders has a commercial licence for the purpose of bottling water for sales.
“An investigative licence is preliminary in nature,” Gow stated in his report. “If granted, it will provide the proponent an opportunity to collect the information the province has requested before they will consider future applications to draw water from either creek.
“Should the project move forward at the end of the investigative period, the Powell River Regional District will receive a subsequent referral from the province for the operation of the project. It is then that a much deeper analysis of the proposal will be possible. Currently, these referrals are for low-impact investigative activities only.”
